MULTISPECTRAL IMAGERY AND AUTOMATIC CLASSIFICATION OF SPECTRAL RESPONSE FOR DETAILED ENGINEERING SOILS MAPPING

MULTISPECTRAL IMAGERY WAS OBTAINED WITH THE COOPERATION OF THE WILLOW RUN LABORATORIES, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN FOR A 70 MILE ROUTE IN CENTRAL INDIANA. THE PROJECT INVOLVED THE EVALUATION OF IMAGERY TAKEN IN FIFTEEN DISCRETE BANDS OF THE SPECTRUM AS A SOURCE OF DATA ON ENGINEERING SOILS. THE MULTISPECTRAL DATA WAS EVALUATED BY VISUAL MEANS, BY DENSITOMETRIC MEASUREMENTS, AND PRINCIPALLY WITH THE USE OF AN AUTOMATIC SPECTRAL RESPONSE CLASSIFICATION METHOD DEVELOPED AT THE LABORATORY FOR APPLICATIONS OF REMOTE SENSING (LARS), PURDUE UNIVERSITY. CLASSIFICATION MAPS REPRESENTING SEVEN SOIL TYPES OF DIFFERENT ENGINEERING SIGNIFICANCE WERE OBTAINED. THERE IS AN INDICATION THAT USEFUL AUTOMATIC CLASSIFICATION OF SOILS CAN BE MADE AND PRINTED ON A COMPUTER MAP USING MULTISPECTRAL DATA COLLECTED BETWEEN THE ULTRAVIOLET AND THE FAR INFRARED RANGE OF THE SPECTRUM. IMFORMATION ON LIMITED LABORATORY REFLECTANCE MEASUREMENTS IS ALSO REPORTED.